Resources
A list of the best resources for learning Québécois traditional music.
Pascal Gemme (fiddle, tunes)
Pascal has been sharing tunes, transcriptions and videos for years under various guises. His videos and playing are as good and traditionally informed as you are likely to find. His playing is visually and audibly clear and accompanied by a metronome. His transcriptions are accurate and all written explanations are in both English and French.
- Trad Québec Studio Pascal’s personal blog, this site contains performance information as well as tune settings that are public. Most of his paid Patreon posts are made public a month or so after they are added to the paid section.
- Trad Québec Studio @ Patreon This paid site contains the entire tune archive, including the most recent tunes that have not yet been moved to the public listing above. Well worth the couple of dollars per month that he charges. I’m a subscriber.
Le violon de Jos
The Le violon de Jos wiki is a massive resource of information and media objects promoting the distribution and education of traditional québécois music and culture. All resources on Le violon de Jos are open source and licensed to be reused/remixed in any way. Most of the content is in French, but this is a treasure trove for those trying to identify or learn tunes. Members of the public are encouraged to join and contribute to the available resources. I have contributed several transcriptions to this project. (See - les éboulements) Any page that includes a transcription from there (Lisa Ornstein, Bélanger brothers, Jos Bouchard, Philippe Bruneau) are provided by me.
- The wiki Top level link from which all content is available.
- Tunes (Morceaux) A list of all tunes that have any content registered against them. Content could be videos, transcriptions, notes, performer information, etc.
- Interpretations (Interprétations) A list of the interpretations or performances of the tunes.